New York Police identify woman burned to death inside subway train
NEW YORK — The woman who died after being set on fire in a New York subway train this month was a 57-year-old from New Jersey, police announced Tuesday. The woman, Debrina Kawam, had worked at the pharmaceutical giant Merck in from 2000 until 2002, but her life at some...
Greensburg, Hempfield areas see changes in fast food, retail business scene
As fast food chains and other popular retail locations close in the Greensburg-Hempfield area, the region’s business scene will see some changes in the new year. Dick’s Sporting Goods While Westmoreland Mall prepares to welcome a Dick’s Sporting Goods House of Sport, one of the chain’s stores along Route 30...
The world begins welcoming 2025 with light shows, embraces and ice plunges
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — From Sydney to Vladivostok, communities around the world have begun welcoming 2025 with spectacular light shows, embraces and ice plunges. Auckland became the first major city to celebrate, as thousands thronged downtown or climbed the city’s ring of volcanic peaks for a fireworks vantage point. A...
Pennsylvania’s political pendulum swung to Republicans this year. Will it stay there?
PHILADELPHIA — Republicans had a major political comeback in Pennsylvania in 2024 after a series of disappointments in recent elections. President-elect Donald Trump won the state by a margin of 1.7 percentage points. Republicans swept the row offices, and ousted two incumbent Democrats in the U.S. House along with longtime...
Trump calls it the ‘center of the universe.’ Mar-a-Lago is a magnet for those seeking influence
PALM BEACH, Fla. — The cars begin lining up early in the morning to be screened by Secret Service agents under white tents near the fence that surrounds President-elect Donald Trump’s vast south Florida estate. Famous figures such as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Tesla...
Pentagon chief loses bid to reject 9/11 plea deals
WASHINGTON — A military appeals court has ruled against Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s effort to throw out the plea deals reached for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants in the 9/11 attacks, a U.S. official said. The decision puts back on track the agreements that would have the three...
Nearly all of Puerto Rico is without power on New Year’s Eve
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A blackout hit nearly all of Puerto Rico early Tuesday as the U.S. territory prepared to celebrate New Year’s, leaving more than 1.3 million clients in the dark. Officials said it could take up to two days to restore power. The outage hit at dawn,...
South Korean adoptees and families rocked by fraud allegations
Her greatest fear, dormant for decades, came rushing back in an instant: had she adopted and raised a kidnapped child? Peg Reif’s daughter, adopted from South Korea in the 1980s, had sent her a link to a documentary detailing how the system that made their family was rife with fraud:...
Fayette County skier defies odds to compete in Junior World Championships
As Jessie Duda fought through traumatic brain injuries caused by a post-prom car crash, doctors told the Fayette County native she may never be able to ski again. But about 2½ years later, Duda will travel to Kazakhstan to compete against athletes ages 14 to 19 from across the world...
Trump’s nomination returns Mehmet Oz to the spotlight, puts him on track to oversee health care for 160M Americans
Mehmet Oz stood in front of a camera in July and filmed a TikTok about “how to conquer your constipation.” “Here’s the scoop on the poop brain loop,” Oz said confidently, delving into an enthusiastic pitch for probiotic supplements to keep you regular. In the two years since losing his...
Leaked documents show Cuban military sitting on billions of dollars amid humanitarian crisis
Even as Cubans have been dying because of shortages of medicines and supplies at hospitals, and the government claims it doesn’t have the money to buy them because of U.S. sanctions, companies run by Cuba’s military have stashed away billions of dollars, according to financial records obtained by the Miami...
Jimmy Carter being mourned in his tiny hometown and around the world
PLAINS, Ga. — Johnny Jones found out about Jimmy Carter’s death within a matter of minutes. That’s how it works in a small town, even for a former U.S. president and Nobel Peace Prize winner known throughout the world. “Somebody texted my wife and told her about it — that’s...
Elon Musk living in $2K per night Mar-a-Lago cottage, report says
Elon Musk is reportedly staying in a cottage at President-elect Donald Trump’s estate that rents for $2,000 a day. The world’s richest man, who holds substantial government contracts and appears to have spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to get Trump and his surrogates elected to office,...
Southerners cleaning up from tornadoes that swept the regionVideo
NEW CANEY, Texas — Cleanup was underway Monday after a strong storm system spawned hail, rain, damaging wind and tornadoes across the southern U.S. over the weekend, killing at least four people. As of Monday afternoon, over 30 tornadoes had been confirmed as crews worked through about 50 reports of...
Woman dies after fall at Bethlehem ice rink, coroner says
A woman died early Monday after a fall Sunday at the SteelStacks ice rink in Bethlehem, according to authorities. Maria Luisa Jimenez, 63, of Costa Rica was pronounced dead about 1:30 a.m. at St. Luke’s University Hospital in Fountain Hill, Lehigh County Coroner Daniel A. Buglio said. Jimenez fell backward...
Senator’s son sentenced to 28 years for killing a North Dakota deputy during car chase
STANTON, N.D. — The adult son of North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer was sentenced to serve 28 years in prison Monday in connection with a wild chase in which he fled from a hospital and drove into a deputy’s vehicle, killing the deputy. Ian Cramer, 43, pleaded guilty in September...
Treasury says Chinese hackers remotely accessed several workstations, unclassified documents
WASHINGTON — Chinese hackers remotely accessed several U.S. Treasury Department workstations and unclassified documents after compromising a third-party software service provider, the agency said Monday. The department did not provide details on how many workstations had been accessed or what sort of documents the hackers may have obtained, but it...
World population will be 8.09 billion on New Year’s Day after 71 million increase in 2024
The world population increased by more than 71 million people in 2024 and will be 8.09 billion people on New Year’s Day, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Monday. The 0.9% increase in 2024 was a slight slowdown from 2023, when the world population grew by 75 million people....
Border arrests are little changed in December, ending Biden’s term at lowest level
SAN DIEGO — Arrests for illegally crossing the border from Mexico in December are little changed from a month earlier, a U.S. official said Monday, hovering near the lowest levels since July 2020 and indicating that an anticipated surge ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration as president hasn’t happened. There were...
Trinidad and Tobago enact a state of emergency in the face of gang violence
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago — A spike in deadly gang violence prompted the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago to implement a country-wide state of emergency Monday. The declaration followed a weekend marred by a spate of gang-related violence that resulted in multiple deaths, including five men believed...
Biden announces nearly $2.5 billion more in military aid for Ukraine
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said Monday that the United States will send nearly $2.5 billion more in weapons to Ukraine as his administration works quickly to spend all the money it has available to help Kyiv fight off Russia before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. The package includes $1.25...
Trump endorses Mike Johnson to stay on as House Speaker despite government funding turmoil
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President-elect Donald Trump on Monday endorsed House Speaker Mike Johnson, providing crucial backing for the Louisiana Republican as he prepares for what is expected to be another contentious speakership race this week. Trump said in a post on his social media platform that Johnson “is...
Appeals court upholds $5 million award in sexual abuse verdict against President-elect Trump
NEW YORK — A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a jury’s finding in a civil case that Donald Trump sexually abused a columnist in an upscale department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a written opinion upholding the $5 million award...
How American presidents have planned their own funerals
WASHINGTON — Jimmy Carter’s memorial journey will end at his house in the tiny town of Plains, Georgia, where he grew up on a peanut farm. That is where his wife, Rosalynn, was laid to rest last year in a burial plot that they chose years ago. But before Carter...
Hotel fire in popular Bangkok tourist area kills 3 foreigners
BANGKOK — A fire broke out at a hotel near Bangkok’s Khao San Road, a popular tourist destination, killing three foreigners and injuring several other people, Thai police said Monday. The three who died in the fire on Sunday night were all foreign tourists, Police Colonel Sanong Saengmanee told The...
